The use of modeling and simulation is widespread across scientific and engineering disciplines and all branches of the United States military utilize modeling and simulation for training, testing, and developing next generation capabilities. Despite this reality, modeling and simulation is largely absent from high school classrooms. Through the use of game-based technology challenges, our team has implemented three years of internship experiences and developed high school M&S content as a way to get learner buy-in and engage students. The Air Force Research Laboratory's Gaming Research Integration for Learning Laboratory has hosted educators, student interns, and mentors since 2011. In this paper we describe the history and evolution of this program which introduces high school students to modeling and simulation, problem-based learning, and provides models of the types of problem-solving capabilities required for working in the defense industry. We review and discuss observations from summer internships and high school classrooms and present anecdotal evidence on student outcomes. Further, we discuss lessons learned with regard to student motivation and teacher education and training as well as future measurement of the program's effectiveness. Observations made to-date suggest that for students who have already achieved academic excellence in high school, substantial gains may be made through short-term internships such as a summer appointment. For students at risk of excluding themselves from science and technology-related career paths, modeling and simulation content has potential to motivate students to address any gaps in their completion of prerequisite courses they will need to move forward. Successful integration of modeling and simulation content within a classroom requires a substantial time investment in the teaching staff but through consistent support, teachers are able to develop the baseline level of comfort and proficiency with the content to support the students in their exploration of the technologies.